About Us

About Changing Lives

At Changing Lives we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their potential. We know that life isn’t straightforward. People’s circumstances, lived experience or health can mean they face barriers to living a happy and fulfilling life.

We work with people who are in crisis or who need support to overcome serious challenges that can limit their opportunities.

We help people to develop the skills and self-belief to move past prior experiences, change their story and achieve a better future – for themselves, their families and their communities.

Asset-based approach

Our asset-based approach means we look for the unique strengths and skills that can help individuals move forward with their lives.

Joined-up services

Many of the people we work with have a range of problems that make life particularly complicated. So we work in partnership with other charities and professional organisations to provide joined-up services for people who sometimes fall through the gaps.

A growing concern

As the need for our services grows, so does our organisation, and we’re proud to be Changing Lives across more of the country than ever before.

We’re commissioned by local authorities across the North and Midlands, who recognise our expertise and the quality of our care. We go where the need is greatest and expect to deliver our brand of compassionate professionalism in the South of England in the next five years.

Network of supporters

We couldn’t do any of this without our amazing network of supporters. Individual fundraisers and volunteers, corporate partners and grant-making organisations all make a massive contribution to our life-changing work.

Together, we are Changing Lives.

What We Do

Changing Lives run specialist services across the country, designed to help people change their lives for the better. We provide compassionate professional services for over 17,000 vulnerable people and their families, every year.

We work with people experiencing hardships that many would struggle to imagine: homelessness, sexual exploitation, life-threatening addictions, mental and physical health problems, long-term unemployment and poverty, and more.

We are experts in working with people experiencing the most complex of problems, providing holistic support to help them rebuild their lives, however long that might take. We work across four – often interconnected – areas to address the most common causes of social exclusion and long-term deprivation (see below).

Our focus is on the individuals we support: their potential, their strengths and the opportunities we can give them to change their lives for the better. These changes ripple out from the individual to their families and their communities, helping break cycles of deprivation, neglect and abuse that can ruin lives.

We help people to leave behind the entrenched problems that have held them back and get them back on their feet, living independently, safely and successfully in their community.

Our Theory of Change explains how we engage with people, work with them, and reintegrate them successfully into their community.

How We Help

We currently have over 100 projects across the North and Midlands.

As need for our services grows across the country, so do we. We have strong leadership who are committed to expanding our services and helping more people in need around the country.

Our work ranges from outreach with people sleeping rough or engaged in sex work, to drug and alcohol services, housing, and employment support.

Drug and Alcohol Services – We provide recovery services for people who want to move away from drug and alcohol use. We value peer-support and the role that people in recovery can play, supporting others in their journey.

Employment Services – We help people overcome barriers to employment, building their confidence and skills, and supporting them into work.

Housing and Homelessness Services – Our accommodation services help people experiencing homelessness, as well as providing longer term housing in our growing range of rental properties.

Women and Children’s Services – We provide tailored support to help women and girls achieve more – whether through accredited training programmes, confidence building work or niche services for groups such as female offenders and sex workers.

Who We Support

Brave. Funny. Determined. Ambitious. Aspiring. Talented. These are just some of the words we can use to describe the people who use our services.

We prefer these to the labels that the people who use our services might be more used to; negative or judgmental labels that can hold them back from reaching their full potential.

People come to our services through lots of different routes. They may have been referred by another agency – such as the probation service or a medical practitioner. Others refer themselves after realising we can help them with a problem they’re experiencing.

Often they’re experiencing one or more interconnected problems that are preventing them from living a happy or successful life.

Through a personalised package of professional and compassionate support, we help them to overcome these challenges and build a better future.

It is always wonderful to hear the stories of people who have used our services to improve their lives. And even better when former clients stay involved – fundraising for us, volunteering with us, and working for us.

20% of our staff are people who have formerly used our services and we’re delighted that they’ve chosen to continue their life-changing journey with us, using their unique experiences to help others build a better future.

Sometimes, people come back to us for help with ongoing problems or due to a return to past behaviours. We welcome back anyone who is still committed to changing their life for the better. We know that everyone can change, we just don’t know when that change will happen. So we’re here to help, as long as it takes.

How We're Funded

We have a range of income streams that allow us to deliver our services.

These include:

Commissions from local authorities to deliver services in their area, such as housing

Grants from charitable trusts and other organisations, such as Lotto

Financial support from generous businesses and individuals

Income from our charity shops and social enterprises

Our Impact

In the past year:

Over 17,00 people have changed their lives with us

Over 500 staff have given us their time and skills

2,203 people have used our housing and homelessness services

8,782 people have been supported by our Women’s Services

We celebrated the 600thperson gaining employment after working with our employment teams

Over half-a-million meals delivered to community groups in the North East

30,427 hours were donated by our vital volunteers

Mission, Vision & Values

Our vision:

Changing Lives, Building Futures

Our mission:

Changing Lives aims to be an outstanding organisation which supports vulnerable people and families to make positive and lasting changes towards a fulfilling life.

We believe in a society where people aren’t held back by where they’ve come from or what they’ve experienced.

We have faith in people and their ability to overcome even the most challenging start to life or the most difficult situations along the way.

We know that, by providing personalised support to the most excluded in our society, we can help them recognise their strengths, overcome their challenges, and build a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.